Golden Age of Comic Books
| Golden Age of Comic Books | |
|---|---|
 Superman, catalyst of the Golden Age: Superman #14 (Feb. 1942). Cover art by Fred Ray | |
| Time span | late 1930s – late 1940s |
| Related periods | |
| Followed by | Silver Age of Comic Books |
The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s. During this time, modern comic books were first published and enjoyed a surge of popularity; the archetype of the superhero was created and defined; and many of the most famous superheroes debuted, among them Superman, Batman, Captain America, and Wonder Woman.
The period saw the arrival of the comic book as a mainstream art form, and the defining of the medium's artistic vocabulary and creative conventions by its first generation of writers, artists, and editors.
History
One event cited for the beginning of the Golden Age was the 1938 debut of Superman in Action Comics #1, published by DC Comics. Superman's creation made comic books into a major industry.[1] Some date the start to earlier events in the 1930s: The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide's regular publication The Golden Age Quarterly lists comic books from 1933 onwards (1933 saw the publication of the first comic book in the size that would subsequently define the format); some historians, including Roger Sabin (in Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels: a History of Comic Art), date it to the publication of the first comic books featuring entirely original stories rather than re-prints of comic strips from newspapers (1935), by the company that would become DC Comics. However, Superman, the first comic book superhero, was so popular that superheroes soon dominated the pages of comic books, which characterized the Golden Age.[citation needed] Between early 1939 and late 1941, DC and sister company All-American Comics introduced such popular superheroes as Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, Hawkman, and Aquaman, while Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel Comics, had million-selling titles that featured the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America.
Although DC and Timely characters are more famous today, circulation figures suggest that the best-selling superhero title of the era may have been Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel, whose approximately 1.4 million copies per issue made it "the most widely circulated comic book in America. Captain Marvel's sales soundly trounced Superman's self-titled series and Action Comics alike, and the comic at one point was issued biweekly to capitalize upon that popular interest.[2]
Other popular and long-running characters included Quality Comics' Plastic Man, and cartoonist Will Eisner's non-superpowered masked detective the Spirit, originally published as a syndicated Sunday-newspaper insert in a quasi-comic book format.
World War II had a significant impact.[citation needed] Comic books, particularly superhero comics, gained immense popularity during the war as cheap, portable, easily read tales of good triumphing over evil. American comic book companies showcased their heroes battling the Axis Powers: covers featuring superheroes punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler or fighting buck-toothed caricatures of Japanese soldiers have become relics of the age.
Although the creation of the superhero was the Golden Age's most significant contribution to pop culture, many other genres of comic book appeared on the newsstands side-by-side with Superman and Captain America. The Golden Age included many funny animal, western, romance, and jungle comics. The Steranko History of Comics 2 notes that it was the non-superhero characters of Dell Comics — most notably the licensed Walt Disney animated character comics — that outsold all the supermen of the day. Dell comics, featuring such licensed movie and literary properties Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Roy Rogers, and Tarzan, boasted circulations of over a million copies a month, and Donald Duck writer/artist Carl Barks is considered one of the era's major talents.[citation needed] Another notable and enduring non-superhero property created during the Golden Age was the Archie Comics cast of teen-humor characters.
Post-war and the atomic era
As with World War II, the ushering in of the era following the dropping of the atomic bomb in 1945 colored the content and subject matter of comic books in the mid to late 1940s. One blunt example is the educational comic book Dagwood Splits the Atom, using characters from the comic strip Blondie.[3] Superheroes with nuclear-derived powers began to emerge, such as the Atomic Thunderbolt and Atoman. In the TV series Adventures of Superman, the titular hero fought a villain named Atom-Man, while Superman's weakness to kryptonite recalled the dangers of atomic radiation. Contrasting these serious characters were atomic funny animal characters such as Atomic Mouse and Atomic Rabbit. One historian argues that these cute creations helped ease young readers' fears over the prospect of nuclear war and neutralize anxieties over the questions posed by atomic power.[4]
End of the era
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Fans differ in marking the end of the Golden Age. Some events considered demarcation points include:
- The rise of gritty crime and horror comics, such as those of EC Comics, in the late 1940s and early 1950s and the beginning of the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings.
- 1950. For Timely Comics, the Golden Age ended with the cancellation of Captain America Comics at issue #75 (Feb. 1950) — by which time the series had already been Captain America's Weird Tales for two issues, with no superhero stories. The company's flagship title, Marvel Mystery Comics, starring the Human Torch, had already ended its run (with #92, June 1949), as had Sub-Mariner Comics (with #32, the same month).
- 1951. Stories featuring the all-star superhero team the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics ended with issue #57. (The series changed its name with #58 to All-Star Western.) This event climaxed a long decline in the popularity of superheroes. At Timely Comics, Goodman began using the Atlas Comics logo on comics cover-dated Nov. 1951.
- The subsequent Silver Age of Comic Books is generally recognized as beginning with the debut of the first successful new superhero since the Golden Age, DC Comics' new Flash, in Showcase #4 (Oct. 1956). The interim period, from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s, is sometimes described as the Atomic Age of Comic Books.[5][6][7][8][9]
See also
Notes
- ^ Goulart, Ron. Comic Book Culture. Collectors Press. p. 43. ISBN 9781888054385.
- ^ Morse, Ben. "Thunderstruck". Wizard #179 (September 2006)
- ^ Dagwood Splits the Atom scan
- ^ Ferenc M. Szasz, "Atomic Comics: The comic book industry Confronts the Nuclear Age", in Atomic Culture: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, eds. Scott C. Zeman and Michael A. Amundson (Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 2004)
- ^ The National Association of Comics Art Educators
- ^ Archives Hub: "Comic Book Collection", University of the Arts. UK
- ^ Comic Book Predigrees
- ^ Christopher, Tom, "Atomic Age Comics", TomChristopher.com
- ^ Overstreet, Robert M. Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide 38th Edition (New York: 2008) p. 1026
References
- Andelman, Bob, Will Eisner: A Spirited Life ISBN 1-59582-011-6
- Grand Comics Database
- Don Markstein's Toonopedia
External links
- Golden Age Comic Books online comic books from FuryComics.com
